Circuit Playground Extension – E-Textile Debugging Tool

The Circuit Playground Extension is a tool that enables the user to design e-textile circuitry with debugging in mind. To use the tool, the user would sew the extension into their project with the holes in the extension’s substrate matching with the pins that the user wants to connect to on the Circuit Playground. The user would then attach stainless steel thread to the magnet in Circuit Playground pins and to the corresponding hole in the extension. If the project is not working as expected the user can:

1. Remove thread connections to the pins, this will separate power from a particular part of the circuit so that the user can test functionality one at a time (isolation switches).

2. Place an LED in series between a pin and the corresponding hole in the extension. This can tell the user if there is power at a particular part of the circuit (if it can drive the LED).

3. Remove a thread from a pin and place an ammeter in series to measure current.

4. If the user is a student and they have a teacher with a CIrcuit Playground that has the correct code for the assignment, the teacher can easily swap in their microcontroller into the extension and test if the student’s code is buggy.